Unreal Mind implies Unreal World

Sage Vasishtha

THE LORD continued:

Consciousness thinks (feels or imagines) falsely 'I am unhappy' even as a demented woman might think she is miserable. Just as one who is not dead wails aloud "Alas I am dead", and when she is not lost she weeps "Alas I am lost", on account of perverse understanding, even so the consciousness falsely imagines it is miserable or limited. Such imagination is irrational and unfounded. Due to the false assumption of the ego-sense the consciousness thinks that the world-appearance is indeed real. It is the mind alone that is the root-cause of experiencing the world as if it were real; but it cannot be truly considered such a cause since there can be no mind other than pure consciousness. Thus, if it is realized that the perceiving mind itself is unreal, then it is clear that the perceived world is unreal too.

Even as there is no oil in a rock, in pure consciousness the diversity of sight, seer and scene, or of doer, act and action, or of knower, knowledge and known does not exist. Similarly, the distinction between 'I' and 'you' is imaginary. The distinction between the one and the many is verbal. All these do not exist at all even as darkness does not exist in the sun. Opposites like substantiality and unsubstantiality, void and non-void are mere concepts. On enquiry, all these disappear and only the unmodified pure consciousness remains.

Consciousness does not truly undergo any modification nor does it become impure. The impurity itself is imaginary; imagination is the impurity. When this is realized, the imagination is abandoned and impurity ceases. However, even in those who have realized this, the impurity arises unless the imagination is firmly rejected. By self-effort this imagination can be easily rejected: if one can drop a piece of straw, one can with equal ease drop the three worlds! What is it that cannot be achieved by one's self-effort?

This infinite consciousness, which is unmodified and non-dual can be realized by one in the single self-luminous inner light. It is pure and eternal, it is ever-present and devoid of mind, it is unmodified and untainted, it is all the objects. In fact, it is non-moving consciousness which exists as if witness to all, even as light shines but shining is not its action. While pure, this consciousness appears to be tainted; in inert material it is non-inert energy. It is omnipresent without being divided by the particulars constituting the all.

This infinite consciousness, which is devoid of concepts and extremely subtle, knows itself. In self-forgetfulness this consciousness entertains thoughts and experiences perception, though all this is possible because of the very nature of the infinite consciousness, even as one who is a asleep is inwardly awake!